Speaker 1: I am all in.
Speaker 2: That's you. I Am all in with Scott Patterson an
Speaker 2: iHeartRadio podcast.
Speaker 1: Hey everybody, Scott Patterson, I Am all In Podcast one
Speaker 1: eleven productions, iHeart Radio, iHeartMedia, iHeart Podcast. One on one
Speaker 1: interview with none other than Jonathan Spencer. He's been in
Speaker 1: five Gilmour episodes, playing various roles. He played a customer,
Speaker 1: hot dog vendor, and then in season seven he got
Speaker 1: credit as Bill. Jonathan is also a musician and before
Speaker 1: he started acting, he was a casting director.
Speaker 3: iHeart Podcasts.
Speaker 2: Listen on the iHeartRadio app.
Speaker 1: Please welcome Jonathan Spencer. Welcome to the show. How are you, Jonathan,
Speaker 1: I'm great, Thanks so much for having me.
Speaker 2: Great to see Scott.
Speaker 1: Good to see you. A casting director.
Speaker 2: I know it in the Southeast. I did like the
Speaker 2: backwards thing, so I went behind the wizard first, behind
Speaker 2: the curtain to see how it all worked. And I
Speaker 2: was less intimidated when I stepped out on the other side.
Speaker 1: Isn't that amazing how that works? Yeah, so let's get
Speaker 1: into this a little bit. So you said you had
Speaker 1: a good story on how you ended up on Gilmore Girls.
Speaker 2: Yeah, so I moved I moved out to LA from
Speaker 2: Atlanta with all the hopes and dreams in two thousand
Speaker 2: and three that everyone moves out to LA with. And
Speaker 2: I slowly worked my way in and got some commercial
Speaker 2: work pretty quickly. I had been working as a free
Speaker 2: assistant and a talent agency, just answering phones and learning
Speaker 2: how it all went. And they sent me out on
Speaker 2: a local Yokol Rene car brand X commercials do this
Speaker 2: rent a car guy who's going to compete with Hurts
Speaker 2: and script and save rent a car? And I booked it.
Speaker 2: So that ended up being a number of spots and
Speaker 2: I got some heat with that, but I just couldn't
Speaker 2: get on episodic TV to save my life. I've been
Speaker 2: workshopping and trying to meet people and trying to get there,
Speaker 2: and eventually I got the call from Gilmore Girls to
Speaker 2: go in for none other than customer number four. And
Speaker 2: I couldn't have been more excited, to tell you the truth.
Speaker 2: It was like the best day of my life. And
Speaker 2: so all nerves and walking in onto the WB backlot
Speaker 2: there in the Midwest lot, and I go into the
Speaker 2: little house that's casting, and I go into the sign
Speaker 2: in sheet and I've got my line memorized, I've been
Speaker 2: practicing for three days. Cobbs sallad new avocado, no bacon,
Speaker 2: Italian dressing on the side, don't get those words wrong, right,
Speaker 2: And sure enough at the sign in sheet, there's a
Speaker 2: placard right over the sign in that shit that says,
Speaker 2: we hear at Gilmore girls are word for word, Please
Speaker 2: do not improv, ad lib nor button the scene, thank you,
Speaker 2: and then we love you actors. And I was like, oh, okay,
Speaker 2: well that just answers all my anxieties and now I
Speaker 2: know what to do. So I was like, that really
Speaker 2: made me comfortable to know that, like that was going
Speaker 2: to be the way things went, and from my mind,
Speaker 2: that was how it was going to be on network,
Speaker 2: TV everywhere. So I walk into the callback and of
Speaker 2: course Amy schrim Palladino I lucked out. She happen to
Speaker 2: be directing that first episode that I was in and
Speaker 2: was at the callback, so it was like that that
Speaker 2: was good karma there.
Speaker 1: And.
Speaker 2: All that went well. I got cast. I show up
Speaker 2: on set for Customer number four. We're in your diner
Speaker 2: at five point thirty in the morning and we do
Speaker 2: the circle up little circle where she stood in the
Speaker 2: middle and just pointed at everybody and had everybody run
Speaker 2: their line kind of in a circle while while everybody's wild,
Speaker 2: camera's still setting up and all that jazz. We hadn't
Speaker 2: even been to hair and makeup yet. And she points
Speaker 2: to everybody in the line and I can count how
Speaker 2: many people before they get to customer number in his line,
Speaker 2: and I'm all nervous, I better save this live. So
Speaker 2: I'm just trying to repeat my line correctly, and she
Speaker 2: eventually gets to rounds, gets around to me and says, Okay,
Speaker 2: what's your name? And I go customer number four? Because no,
Speaker 2: what's your name? I'm sorry, Jonathan Jonathan and Jonathan Spencer, Okay,
Speaker 2: what's your line? Just calmed down, it's gonna be great.
Speaker 2: And I think that kind of little green defacy error
Speaker 2: of my name is customer number four kind of endeared
Speaker 2: me to her a little bit, and that's what made
Speaker 2: me come back as the next time I was costumer
Speaker 2: number one because it was misspelled in the credits, especially
Speaker 2: be customer number one and upgrade from number four, and
Speaker 2: then hot Dog Bender and then eventually the last time
Speaker 2: we had rehearsal in season six, I think before season seven,
Speaker 2: we had that same circle lot and Amy did a
Speaker 2: little number and I think she remembered from the year before.
Speaker 2: She goes, Okay, what's your name to me with kind
Speaker 2: of the eyes, and I go, now, I'm confused, because
Speaker 2: am my hot dog vendor, my costumer and my customer.
Speaker 2: I just so, I just said Jonathan, the customer number
Speaker 2: four from from the blah blah blah. She goes, no,
Speaker 2: your bill, what, No, you're now Bill, and then she
Speaker 2: moved on and in a second, sure enough, go back
Speaker 2: to my We hadn't even checked into wardrobe. I go
Speaker 2: back to my little little narrow sideways honeywagon and there
Speaker 2: it is Gilmore Girls. Bill.
Speaker 1: It's a nice feeling. Huh yeah, it's just a thrill.
Speaker 2: I mean that was so exciting because I felt like
Speaker 2: the upgrade, but just the discipline on the set of
Speaker 2: Gilmore Girls. Of of course, not just the words per minute,
Speaker 2: but just getting it right and the blocking and the
Speaker 2: rhythm and the timing and the pacing and nailing it quickly,
Speaker 2: you know, and and having a four minute steady cam
Speaker 2: shot that doesn't break and designer. All these things were
Speaker 2: to me brand new. But I thought TV was always
Speaker 2: going to be like that. So when so when director
Speaker 2: Ken Whitingham, who directed a number of Gilmore Girls episodes,
Speaker 2: he happened to direct one of my second or third ones,
Speaker 2: and just coincidentally, the next week, I'm at a callback
Speaker 2: from My Name is Earl and there's Ken Whitingham directing
Speaker 2: an episode of that. But that show, the show runner
Speaker 2: wanted improv and wanted buttons and wanted tags. So it
Speaker 2: was kind of for me a quick study. But I'm
Speaker 2: so glad I came from the Amy Sherman Palladino, Aaron Storkin,
Speaker 2: Mike O'Malley, Cheryl Anderson world of Word for Word first,
Speaker 2: so I have the discipline to be able to not
Speaker 2: be a lazy actor who just improvs because they think
Speaker 2: they're better, you know what I mean?
Speaker 1: Yeah, or they think they're improving the scene or improving Yeah,
Speaker 1: uh okay, great story.
Speaker 2: Yeah. So I was just really it was always sort
Speaker 2: of like going to you know, going to cub Scout
Speaker 2: camp with all the boy scout rules, Like I already
Speaker 2: had all the like the I had the hard stuff,
Speaker 2: and I could do it fast by the time I
Speaker 2: got to you know, always Sonia in Philly and Pineapple
Speaker 2: Express a few years later, and like a Judd Apatouse
Speaker 2: set where it's loose and you're you're cutting in riffing.
Speaker 1: I was.
Speaker 2: I was so glad that I had the set discipline
Speaker 2: of the script first for sure.
Speaker 1: So your first line on TV turns out to be
Speaker 1: your meal order while Luke was hurrying around the diner,
Speaker 1: Cob cell, don't have a cut and O bacon lue cheese,
Speaker 1: Talian dressing. I mean, you do it better than I
Speaker 1: because you know it.
Speaker 2: You rememberized eighteen years later, I still have the memorize, So.
Speaker 1: You really nailed it, and you just nailed it again
Speaker 1: here do you? What was that first day on set? Like,
Speaker 1: were you nervous? I was?
Speaker 2: I was, And it was such a you know, an
Speaker 2: influx of input and knowledge and just kind of wonder
Speaker 2: because I of course had watched the show and I
Speaker 2: knew the show, but I had not been to you know,
Speaker 2: the Midwest set or anything on the Warner Brothers lot
Speaker 2: to kind of know how the machine was gonna work.
Speaker 2: So I was really in awe just kind of sitting
Speaker 2: back and watching and I think if I had this correctly,
Speaker 2: I think we were shooting a winter scene in the
Speaker 2: summer or at least it was traditional warm California, and
Speaker 2: so I had my own like barber hunting and Parker
Speaker 2: jacket on, and I was it was like ninety degrees
Speaker 2: and so just the whole thing was surreal. You know,
Speaker 2: I didn't know the snow was going to be fake.
Speaker 2: I just didn't know anything. I mean, I just didn't
Speaker 2: know how the machine worked. So I really I can't
Speaker 2: remember his name, but the guy who the guy who
Speaker 2: worked in the diner with you, who's just like a
Speaker 2: really friendly, nice Hispanic guy. He played kind of your
Speaker 2: diner cook.
Speaker 1: Oh Caesar, Yeah, Caesar.
Speaker 2: He that actor. I forgot his name, and I wish
Speaker 2: I coul remember offs Alvarado artist Alvarado. He was really
Speaker 2: kind to me and picked up on my green newbie
Speaker 2: energy and just gave me kind of like the hey man,
Speaker 2: you got this, It's gonna be cool. Just he just
Speaker 2: kind of gave me the little like I don't know,
Speaker 2: we had like ChB guy bonding, and I felt like
Speaker 2: everything was going to be okay after that. But there's
Speaker 2: currently in twenty twenty four, we actually have a new
Speaker 2: real problem that I've noticed in both casting and the
Speaker 2: acting side right now, which is that because of self taping.
Speaker 2: The new SAG rules have made it such that they
Speaker 2: can't ask actors to memorize the sides right for their audition.
Speaker 2: But the intention of that is not to say improv
Speaker 2: or go off book. The intention is that they'll have
Speaker 2: enough time to turn around a self tape right. So
Speaker 2: what's been happening is casting. When you have a showrunner
Speaker 2: like Amy or Aaron Sorkin or Mike O'Malley who wants
Speaker 2: and should deserve to have their artistic vision honored of
Speaker 2: word to word, word for word, casting can't ask the
Speaker 2: actors to do that. And they're all scared that legal
Speaker 2: will get in if they say, you know, use a teleprompter,
Speaker 2: use your iPad, you hold your sides out of frame,
Speaker 2: but to please honor the script. They're afraid that legal
Speaker 2: will get in and say, oh no, no, no, you're
Speaker 2: telling them to memorize, which is really kind of silly,
Speaker 2: Like we all would all of us would benefit, and
Speaker 2: every show runner has a right to run it however
Speaker 2: they want, you know, but we need to know. If
Speaker 2: you're going on righteous Gemstones, you better do three buttons
Speaker 2: and three tags. If you're going on a Michaelmalley or
Speaker 2: an Aaron Sorkin or an Amy Shore and Palladino show.
Speaker 2: You better nail A and not the It says, hey,
Speaker 2: not the you know they, but casting is not allowed
Speaker 2: to communicate that to us, So I don't know. I'm
Speaker 2: going to reach out to SAG at some point, because
Speaker 2: surely we can all come together and collaborate on some
Speaker 2: wording that would it would only help everyone, right, the
Speaker 2: actors and casting and the showrunner.
Speaker 1: I really miss, you know, meeting producers and meeting the
Speaker 1: star or or if I'm the star, meeting the people
Speaker 1: that are coming into audition. I think that's really important.
Speaker 1: You know, you get the vibe and you know, you
Speaker 1: can almost instantly tell if somebody's right for something as
Speaker 1: soon as they walk through the door. You can kind
Speaker 1: of feel their energy and you kind of see them
Speaker 1: and how they come in and it's like, oh yeah
Speaker 1: that you know. It all sort of starts to happen.
Speaker 1: When it happens, you know, and when it doesn't, it
Speaker 1: really doesn't. And it's very quick and a.
Speaker 2: Taped performance doesn't honor the essence of the person and
Speaker 2: you need all you need that physical being to really say, Okay,
Speaker 2: this person's essence fits our world, regardless of their performance.
Speaker 1: Especially a director. I would think a director would want
Speaker 1: to meet the people that they're going to work with
Speaker 1: and watch a performance live or watch an audition live
Speaker 1: right there in the room. Mm hmm. I mean I
Speaker 1: remember I auditioned for Tarantino's first film four Times Wow,
Speaker 1: and he was there every single time. And these were
Speaker 1: really grueling, arduous scenes and there were three or four
Speaker 1: of them at a time.
Speaker 2: And he got in He got in there and worked
Speaker 2: in with you, right, yes, I got right in there
Speaker 2: with you.
Speaker 1: Well, I mean David Mentor does yes, I mean he
Speaker 1: in the very final audition, he actually jumped into the
Speaker 1: audition and started improving with me. Oh wow, yes, yes,
Speaker 1: oh cool. Yeah. So I mean he you can't do
Speaker 1: that if you're self taping. I mean, there's just no
Speaker 1: there's just no way. So I think I don't know.
Speaker 1: I just think everything was better back in the day before.
Speaker 2: It's here to stay, So I don't I don't know
Speaker 2: how to make it.
Speaker 1: It is, truly. They're not ever going to go back
Speaker 1: to it.
Speaker 2: Yeah, but it's turned into kind of a grocery shopping
Speaker 2: trip for casting, you know, and they like go down
Speaker 2: Aisle three, and oh, well, that peanut butter's out of stock,
Speaker 2: will go get a different one. They don't. There's the
Speaker 2: collaborative nature of the of the actor, the casting director,
Speaker 2: and then the showrunner or director, the collaborative in the
Speaker 2: room in there anymore, it's just yes, no peanut butter, nutella.
Speaker 1: You know, I haven't done a lot of self tape auditions.
Speaker 1: I've done a few, and you know, a couple of them,
Speaker 1: I thought I really nailed. There was one for a
Speaker 1: Natalie Portman to start up? Is it Natalie Portman? And
Speaker 1: I thought I really nailed, and I thought I was
Speaker 1: going to get it. I didn't get it, but I
Speaker 1: just you know, you missed that opportunity to meet with
Speaker 1: the people that are involved. And it's just like that's
Speaker 1: just everything. You know. They it's a chemistry check. It
Speaker 1: is absolutely just is if you if you sort of
Speaker 1: vibe with a person and that that translates on screen.
Speaker 1: So that's that's an element that is completely missing.
Speaker 2: Chemistry and environment are denied by a self tape because
Speaker 2: you can't know how they fit in the environment if
Speaker 2: they haven't been in the room. And like and like
Speaker 2: you said, chemistry, like you have. It might work with
Speaker 2: the other actors, it might not. We'll find out work,
Speaker 2: We'll find out the makeup trailer exam.
Speaker 1: Right, it's wow, that's frustrating.
Speaker 2: I'm trying to do it a different way. But I'm
Speaker 2: just a small, little, tiny indie film casting director. Now
Speaker 2: I'm not I'm not a big enough deal to change
Speaker 2: the world. But but you know, if you get three callbacks,
Speaker 2: the third ones in room with me, that's for sure.
Speaker 1: Mm hmm, oh sure, I totally agree with you. All right,
Speaker 1: So your scene Bill was when Luke found out that
Speaker 1: he had a daughter and oh yeah, walked in asking
Speaker 1: for a piece of my hair or Luke's hair. Uh,
Speaker 1: what do you remember about filming that scene?
Speaker 2: I do, because specifically I remember I remember the the
Speaker 2: the kid actor if and'sa right as an adult, big
Speaker 2: deal now, right, Yeah, and her sister a big deal.
Speaker 2: But and I don't specifically remember her so much because
Speaker 2: she was just a young kid. But her mom, I
Speaker 2: totally remember her mom. I'm always paying attention to Mama
Speaker 2: Jerseys talking to the moms.
Speaker 1: She's so great. She was, she produced these two brilliant kids.
Speaker 3: She was she was one of the good ones and
Speaker 3: and I heard her on the phone going because it
Speaker 3: was day one and she was on the phone with
Speaker 3: I don't know, a relative or a friend or something
Speaker 3: just walking around.
Speaker 2: Said I wasn't trying to eavesdrop, and she was like,
Speaker 2: she was like, no, this is the Vanessa book to
Speaker 2: the big one. This is the big one that was
Speaker 2: And she caught my eye and I was like, yeah,
Speaker 2: you go right.
Speaker 1: Yeah that led to that.
Speaker 2: Led to all kinds of magic for her and I
Speaker 2: later later on was on a couple of years later,
Speaker 2: I got on I Carle the Nickelodeon Kids show, and
Speaker 2: that without naming names, that was a messful of mamagers,
Speaker 2: not good at all.
Speaker 1: Kinds of that were not what did you what do
Speaker 1: you call them? Mama?
Speaker 2: What mamagers? Mom managers, mamagers, mamagers.
Speaker 4: Okay, well, see, you know, if the kid asked you,
Speaker 4: you gotta put all the money in the cougan account
Speaker 4: and the kid can't have access to it.
Speaker 2: So the mamager can take twenty percent off of gross
Speaker 2: and put it in her pocket and they can get
Speaker 2: into work every day, you know. So that's why they
Speaker 2: all become mammagers. So all their psychological reasons too, but
Speaker 2: Vanessa's mom was one of the good ones. But I
Speaker 2: Carly was wow, that was a train wreck. I think
Speaker 2: there's a documentary about that, so I won't say anything more.
Speaker 1: So did the nerves begin to subside as you did?
Speaker 1: As you did more episodes? You felt more like part
Speaker 1: of the family almost, you.
Speaker 2: Know, definitely, and observing really helped me. And I'll tell you,
Speaker 2: just like a little zen thing was the repetition of
Speaker 2: doing things the same way, of getting the word for
Speaker 2: word out and watching the four minute steady cam blocking
Speaker 2: it was incredible. It was in a crowded diner. All
Speaker 2: of that discipline watching it happened actually calmed me down
Speaker 2: because it made me centered and focused on like I'm
Speaker 2: nailing it, you know, because I could. I started to
Speaker 2: like feel when the camera was there instead of like
Speaker 2: counting blocking numbers, and you know, instead of going okay, one, two, three, talk,
Speaker 2: I was like, okay, I can feel it. Here they come.
Speaker 2: But and it just my my, you know, I'm a
Speaker 2: I'm a bass player and a drummer and a guitar player,
Speaker 2: and my rhythm, my natural rhythm took over and I
Speaker 2: could feel the rhythm of the script and where I
Speaker 2: needed to come in rather than just like being nervous
Speaker 2: about my part's about to happen, you know. Yeah, and
Speaker 2: just watching everybody gave me the kind of like the
Speaker 2: discipline of repetition gave me confidence.
Speaker 1: I would say, yeah, yeah, those diner scenes were very involved,
Speaker 1: very involved with the blocking. Those were my favorite scenes.
Speaker 2: Though it's a tight little place to do a dance,
Speaker 2: it is, But I.
Speaker 1: Don't know, I just I just love that set. I
Speaker 1: really love that set, and we did some good work
Speaker 1: on that set.
Speaker 2: It worked really well. It just really did. I was
Speaker 2: saying the Squeaky Tables anywhere that she's sick asp she
Speaker 2: had a she had a she goes. It was in
Speaker 2: the middle of the tank and one of the tables went,
Speaker 2: she goes. Okay people season six, Squeaky Tables seasons so classic.
Speaker 2: And I heard her writing voice when she did that.
Speaker 2: I was like, oh, that's her writing voice. I totally
Speaker 2: that's her voice.
Speaker 1: I get it now. Yeah, she didn't pop too much,
Speaker 1: but when she did it was really you know, she
Speaker 1: was amusing. It was always funny. Yeah, it was never
Speaker 1: angry or you know, I mean there was a little
Speaker 1: bit of frustration, like she's sending that message out to
Speaker 1: you know whatever.
Speaker 2: She didn't quite how much money that I made for
Speaker 2: you people, but the message was clear, come come squirt
Speaker 2: from W forty on these temples. Ye know.
Speaker 1: Yeah, so funny. All right, So one of your episodes
Speaker 1: was the Winter Carnival as a hot dog vendor where
Speaker 1: you got to experience stars hollow all dressed up like that.
Speaker 2: Uh that was the snow, the fake snow, and that.
Speaker 1: Was a shoot. Yeah, so talk about that. He'll tell
Speaker 1: us about that.
Speaker 2: Well. I was obsessed with that that out that exterior
Speaker 2: part of is it called Middle America might calling it
Speaker 2: right that back lot of the WB area, but but
Speaker 2: for me, I immediately recognized the gazebo where the town square.
Speaker 2: I was like, that's Boss Hogs gazebo from the pilot
Speaker 2: Duke's matter. And then I was like, that's the Ronald
Speaker 2: Reagan movie something where he gives this speech. It just
Speaker 2: immediately I was connecting all the dots to to that
Speaker 2: little part of the lot. And and yeah, just to
Speaker 2: see it fully decorated with you know, with with trucks
Speaker 2: and the and the confetti's foam snow. I think it
Speaker 2: was a combination of both foam and confetti to make
Speaker 2: it or something. Not how close you were to camera,
Speaker 2: but you know, it was eighty five degrees outside and
Speaker 2: we all had winter jackets on and.
Speaker 1: And then messed up.
Speaker 2: Yeah, the various blowers and everything going. And I think
Speaker 2: they the band. I wasn't in the episode with the
Speaker 2: band Sparks, but it was just the week before that,
Speaker 2: so they were they were still cleaning up from the
Speaker 2: big band concert and they were still like, bring the
Speaker 2: snow in, take the band out.
Speaker 1: Yeah, yeah, Sparks. Sparks was on Gilmour Girls, I.
Speaker 4: Know, Wild.
Speaker 2: Wiley and fifteen years before America. I mean, they've been
Speaker 2: around for fifty more than fifty years because I'm fifty.
Speaker 2: But they yeah, they they were. They were cool before
Speaker 2: they were cool, even on Gilmour Girls.
Speaker 1: Absolutely so. All right, So so here we are, season seven, right,
Speaker 1: episode seventeen, they gave you a bill.
Speaker 2: Do y'all call that the bonus year or what do
Speaker 2: we if we call that extra season?
Speaker 1: The we call that, uh maybe a gift better left unwrapped?
Speaker 1: I don't know, understood.
Speaker 2: Yeah, there are some you know.
Speaker 1: There's some really charming episodes in seven seven Season seven
Speaker 1: finding So I'm glad that they were made, and I
Speaker 1: think it's a relevant season and uh, you know, there's
Speaker 1: always going to be Bobbles. It's a hard, hard thing
Speaker 1: to do to all those seasons, but there's some really
Speaker 1: great episodes in there, and we just we just reviewed one.
Speaker 2: I did have one slightly juicy TMZ story which was
Speaker 2: in the last, the last episode that I did of
Speaker 2: season six, right, and it was it wasn't the it
Speaker 2: wasn't the last episode, but it was like maybe the
Speaker 2: third to last or penultimate. It was getting close to
Speaker 2: the season winding up, and every everything was in negotiations
Speaker 2: and up in the air, and nobody knew was what
Speaker 2: was the status at that point? What is there or
Speaker 2: is there not going to be? A seven? Was the deal?
Speaker 2: And I remember riding in the transpo van back to
Speaker 2: dressing or base camp or wherever we were, and one
Speaker 2: of the actors was riding back in the transfer van
Speaker 2: with me, one of the series Rigs and nice guy,
Speaker 2: and I just being dumb new actor green medi I
Speaker 2: was like, so were we coming back for another season
Speaker 2: or what? Not knowing that that was like very touchy
Speaker 2: at that point, and he just under his breath goes.
Speaker 2: I hear Alexis has a price. If they made it,
Speaker 2: we're going. I was like, welcome to Hollywood. Wow, okay,
Speaker 2: here we go.
Speaker 1: Yeah, those were those were touchy days.
Speaker 2: Touchy days. But like you said, and all in all,
Speaker 2: it was it was amazing to have another see then.
Speaker 2: I think I only came back like once in the
Speaker 2: final one anyway, but but yeah, it was, it was.
Speaker 2: It was super cool to I think one of the
Speaker 2: episodes is called super Cool Party People.
Speaker 1: Actually, yes, indeed, let's talk about your music. Yeah, so
Speaker 1: you're a musician, you're recording in a band. What's happening.
Speaker 2: Yeah, I'd like to say that. You know, I've kind
Speaker 2: of always done both since I was about fourteen, both
Speaker 2: acting and music, because I quickly learned when I was
Speaker 2: about fourteen that I could stay out of the gym
Speaker 2: and spend all weekend building sets and stapling fabric with
Speaker 2: all the hot girls who did musicals in high school,
Speaker 2: and I would have air conditioning in the south instead
Speaker 2: of sweating, and half the guys were, let's say, not
Speaker 2: interested in the pretty girls. So for a chubby, nerdy
Speaker 2: guy like me, the odds got really good and I
Speaker 2: became a great listener, I mean to tell me all
Speaker 2: about it. Well, so I learned some pretty good skills
Speaker 2: there in high school from theater and music as well
Speaker 2: that everybody wanted to come see the band and kept
Speaker 2: me off the practice field running laps. So yeah, I'm
Speaker 2: kind of always done it. And this latest project that
Speaker 2: I mean, I had a band in LA for eight
Speaker 2: years called the Beechwood Canyon Rockers that we play every
Speaker 2: other tuestate piano bar. I've always kind of had it going.
Speaker 2: It's just different times in my life. One thing is
Speaker 2: kicking versus the other. But for me, they're always present.
Speaker 2: There's no difference. It's just where I'm paying taxes, right.
Speaker 2: But this most recent project, there is a singer songwriter
Speaker 2: artist in the South named Kevin Kinney who fronts a
Speaker 2: band called Driving and Crying that's done great over the
Speaker 2: years and they're beloved in the South. And his wife
Speaker 2: Anna Anna Jensen, who's an artist painter, she produced. She
Speaker 2: decided to produce a tribute series to him while he's alive, right,
Speaker 2: instead of tributes that happened after your dead. So it
Speaker 2: is so she has a label together and all that,
Speaker 2: and they are releasing one hundred songs in one hundred weeks,
Speaker 2: one every Friday for two years. That are his songs
Speaker 2: by other.
Speaker 1: People that other people recorded, correct, like legit artists.
Speaker 2: Yes, So five months ago she asked me to in La.
Speaker 2: I had a little comedy rock duo with my friend
Speaker 2: Laura Wiggins, who played Karen on Shameless the first three
Speaker 2: seasons with Serious Ray, and we had a little frickin'
Speaker 2: frack Russian comedy duo kind of thing. And Kevin Kevin's
Speaker 2: wife asked Laura and I who had toured with Kevin
Speaker 2: years ago out West and Peter Buck from Rim. We've
Speaker 2: done like an acoustic tour with them. Kevin's wife said,
Speaker 2: why don't you and Laura put together a project for
Speaker 2: this song? And so set in Stone is our current
Speaker 2: release that just came out two weeks ago or a
Speaker 2: week and a half ago, came out on July nineteenth.
Speaker 2: It was just released and we've been recording for months
Speaker 2: and months and it went and it's a Kevin's song
Speaker 2: that we recorded with a new band with Taylor Trucks,
Speaker 2: who's the son of Butch Trucks from the Almond Brothers.
Speaker 2: And then Laura sings backup and the guy from the Pink.
Speaker 2: So we're calling it slightly Famous Somebody's because we're slightly
Speaker 2: a big deal but not really a big Yeah, And
Speaker 2: it went so great, it came out so phenomenal that
Speaker 2: Kevin and everybody was like, you guys would be foolish
Speaker 2: to not keep going.
Speaker 1: I'm gonna write I'm gonna write this down after after
Speaker 1: I get off with you, I'm gonna listen to this stuff.
Speaker 1: What's the man.
Speaker 2: Yeah, So the band is called Slightly Famous Somebody's and
Speaker 2: the song is called set in Stone, and it's on YouTube,
Speaker 2: It's on all the Spotify, Apple, it's everywhere. It's on
Speaker 2: all the services. I think one of your producers. My
Speaker 2: signature has all the links in it my email, so
Speaker 2: your producer's probably at it. And so yeah, so Kevin
Speaker 2: Kevin's suggestion. We went back into the studio about two
Speaker 2: weeks ago, and I'm going back in the studio again
Speaker 2: next week and we're recording an entire uh EP of
Speaker 2: all songs from Athens, Georgia Ish artists. Where's Kevin's from,
Speaker 2: and I'm from, where ore EM's from, Where Indigo Girls
Speaker 2: are from, and the Black Crows are from Windspread Panic
Speaker 2: and so we're covering a song by all of those
Speaker 2: artists and putting it on our record, which is going
Speaker 2: to be called athens Ish, so it's it's sort of
Speaker 2: a play on that. And yeah, we just did the
Speaker 2: Indigo Girls song from nineteen eighty nine last week called
Speaker 2: Land of Canaan, so that'll be out in a month
Speaker 2: or two, and then we have another single by another
Speaker 2: Athens band called Gladacamal Diary after that, and then the
Speaker 2: first week of September we're recording all of our favorite
Speaker 2: RM song and RM is kind of the mothership for Athens,
Speaker 2: so you have to you have to bow with the
Speaker 2: author of them, and that's no problem because we all
Speaker 2: love them.
Speaker 1: So yeah, that's exciting. That's exciting.
Speaker 2: Yeah, it's really it's do you have.
Speaker 1: A booking agent and they're setting tours and this.
Speaker 2: Kind of Well, that's the great thing is everybody in
Speaker 2: the band has their own primary other thing they do, right,
Speaker 2: So this is it's not I don't like to say
Speaker 2: that it's a side project. It's more like a pop
Speaker 2: up band, right, Like we pop up and we exist
Speaker 2: and then we're gone and we're kind of like the
Speaker 2: Partridge Family or the Blues Brothers. Or Eddie and the Cruisers.
Speaker 2: We're like a fake, real band made for TV, you know.
Speaker 2: So we are a band, but you know, I'm going
Speaker 2: for two songs air conditioning and cut the commercial break,
Speaker 2: not a van and sweaty people, right.
Speaker 1: That's smart.
Speaker 2: Yeah, but we want to get on Gemstones and be
Speaker 2: the house band or something, you know, like that would
Speaker 2: be would be great. But yeah, our lead singer, Mackenzie,
Speaker 2: she plays Stevie Nicks in the biggest Fleetwood Mac cover
Speaker 2: band in the nation, and she's on tour constantly. She's
Speaker 2: leaving tomorrow morning, gone, you know, a month at a time.
Speaker 2: So nobody's really available except for like the really concentrated
Speaker 2: time when we're all together and then everybody disappears.
Speaker 1: So, so you're down there in Georgia.
Speaker 2: Yeah, I'm in Atlanta. I'm in Atlanta. Yeah, I'm back
Speaker 2: in forth in LA. Yeah, I'm in LA all the time.
Speaker 2: But I live I live full time in Atlanta.
Speaker 1: Now, yeah, okay.
Speaker 2: Or casting stuff and whatever, but I so I kind
Speaker 2: of I work as an actor in LA and I
Speaker 2: work as a casting director in Atlanta. Just to keep
Speaker 2: it all over interesting interesting. I mean, I'll mix if
Speaker 2: someone offers, but that's just kind of how it's all
Speaker 2: falling out.
Speaker 1: You got to go where the work is right.
Speaker 2: Plus, like nobody, nobody here is doing it the l
Speaker 2: a way. So I was like, guys, I got eleven
Speaker 2: years there, I can do it that way.
Speaker 1: You know. I was in Atlanta over the past couple
Speaker 1: of years, did a convention there at the at the
Speaker 1: CNN Center, and god, there's the greatest sushi restaurant outside
Speaker 1: just outside it. What do you have you been to
Speaker 1: this place? Oh?
Speaker 2: But did you go to bou Hie Buford Highway we
Speaker 2: call Boohai and Shambley with all the it's like a
Speaker 2: small not even small, it's a massive Asian part of town.
Speaker 2: But the food is incredible.
Speaker 1: I don't think what's another one.
Speaker 2: Be boo Hi Shambley. I mean there's just so there's
Speaker 2: so much good, especially down there and also downtown where
Speaker 2: you were we called the Omni Center because bail.
Speaker 1: Now we we got out. It took forever to get
Speaker 1: out of downtown. It took forever to just drive one
Speaker 1: block and then you know, we were thinking about walking,
Speaker 1: but then the kebar said, oh no, no, no, this
Speaker 1: is a couple of mile drive, you know, Yeah.
Speaker 2: That's not a great walking town at all.
Speaker 1: The sushi was so good there. We went back night
Speaker 1: after night. Oh man, awesome, and I remember ordering. I
Speaker 1: actually ordered a platter and because because the the the
Speaker 1: salmon belly sushi was actually they were smaller pieces than
Speaker 1: what the what you get out here in California, thirty
Speaker 1: of them.
Speaker 2: There's a there's a place in downtown l A that
Speaker 2: a couple of times a year has all you can
Speaker 2: eat raw oysters for three hours.
Speaker 1: Okay, I have.
Speaker 2: Absolutely, I've destroyed my guts. I've come out of there
Speaker 2: like nobody's coming near me for a week after that.
Speaker 1: I tell you, you know, I lived in the South. I've
Speaker 1: traveled the South. The food is fantastic, isn't it. It's
Speaker 1: just so good down there. All right, So we're gonna
Speaker 1: do a rapid fire. It's a little game we play.
Speaker 1: Doesn't mean you have to be fast. I'm just gonna
Speaker 1: ask you a bunch of questions. So let's just relax.
Speaker 1: Let's answer these questions to the best of your ability.
Speaker 1: All right, here we go. How do you like your coffee?
Speaker 2: Oh easy? A lot of cream, no sugar.
Speaker 1: Are you a team logan, team ess or team Dean.
Speaker 2: Oh, I think I'm team Logan.
Speaker 1: Why tell me why?
Speaker 2: I think. You see, I'm like casting nerds, so I'm
Speaker 2: following like the actor's career after they played you know,
Speaker 2: after they played Logans. I'm answering that in actor terms
Speaker 2: instead of character terms. So yeah, I like what that
Speaker 2: actor has done. But with a number of other projects too,
Speaker 2: So yeah, and.
Speaker 1: I think Logan was a really meaty role too.
Speaker 2: Yeah.
Speaker 1: Yeah, he did a great job with it, didn't he.
Speaker 2: Yeah, and what a good launch. I would bet he's
Speaker 2: had a lot of the same kind of like everything
Speaker 2: else was easy after that kind of thing, because he's
Speaker 2: a ton of stuff to work with. Yes.
Speaker 1: Indeed, who was your favorite Gilmore Girls couple? Luke and
Speaker 1: Lorelei or Emily and Richard?
Speaker 2: Oh, definitely Luke Isla.
Speaker 1: Is there any other.
Speaker 2: Couple that's right? Well, I grew up in like the
Speaker 2: Atlanta debutante world, so the uh so the Emily world
Speaker 2: was like it was a little too close to home
Speaker 2: for me, and a lot of.
Speaker 1: I was like, give me what hev GB's every time
Speaker 1: you turned on the TV.
Speaker 2: Yeah, it was a guy a little I was looking
Speaker 2: for the gone with the wind cast sometimes.
Speaker 1: Would you rather work with Michelle or Kirk?
Speaker 2: Oh, Michelle?
Speaker 1: Would you what would you order at Luke's Diner?
Speaker 2: Cops solid, I have a bacon it Titian dressings go.
Speaker 1: Who would you rather hang out with? Paris or Lane?
Speaker 2: Oh? I really liked Lane. I did meet I didn't
Speaker 2: have a scene with Lane, but I met Lane in
Speaker 2: between scenes or in makeup, and I really liked I
Speaker 2: really liked Lane. I thought that was great.
Speaker 1: Yeah. Uh, Harvard or Yale or drop out and live
Speaker 1: in the poolhouse.
Speaker 2: Definitely pool house.
Speaker 1: You gotta go with the poolhouse.
Speaker 2: It's I've been sober seven years, but my brain is
Speaker 2: permanently attached to deviants and dropping out in clubhouse and party,
Speaker 2: even though I'm not that guy anymore. Like huh, my
Speaker 2: self images. So I'm like, you ask me questions that
Speaker 2: I'm like, Yes, let's go to New Orleans right now
Speaker 2: with no plan in nine dollars, let's.
Speaker 1: Do it interesting. Uh. Would you rather attend a dar
Speaker 1: event with Emily or a town town meeting with Taylor?
Speaker 2: Oh? See now this, I'll go the other way because Emily.
Speaker 2: I would be quiet and sit behind Emily and learn something.
Speaker 1: Yeah, this is the right choice.
Speaker 2: This is I would let I would let her lead. Absolutely,
Speaker 2: I would step behind.
Speaker 1: Gilmore's character that you would want as a roommate. Oh caesar, Oh,
Speaker 1: I caeesar.
Speaker 2: Because he couldn't bring home leftovers every night. I needed
Speaker 2: Te's dip and things to eat after the game to.
Speaker 1: Watch somebody's thinking, somebody's thinking, somebody.
Speaker 2: Snacks from the diner, and plus like tell me fun, guys,
Speaker 2: we got to stick together. So yeah, he'd be my roommate.
Speaker 1: Something in your life you are all in on.
Speaker 2: Oh man, this one's a big one. You know. I
Speaker 2: wasn't like a criminal or anything, but you know I
Speaker 2: found my way into trouble a lot when I was
Speaker 2: a daily heavy alcohol abuser. And it's been seven and
Speaker 2: a half years. So my main mission now, I'm not
Speaker 2: like some goodie two shoes. I'm just trying to make
Speaker 2: I just try to g litmus tests myself of am
Speaker 2: I doing this in an ethical way? And that's my
Speaker 2: all in. It is like if the thing I want
Speaker 2: passes my truth mirrored ethical litmus test, then I am
Speaker 2: absolutely all in on it, and I try to put
Speaker 2: everything in front of that position first now and before
Speaker 2: I didn't think about it at all. I mean, I
Speaker 2: felt guilty about it when I didn't do it, but
Speaker 2: I didn't think about it, so it's not you know,
Speaker 2: I still screw up, fall in my face and do
Speaker 2: totally greedy things that are absolutely wrong and in my
Speaker 2: self interest every day, but I try to put that
Speaker 2: am I pursuing my goals ethically? Is my all in?
Speaker 1: That's it Jonathan Spencer, Ladies and gentlemen. There you have
Speaker 1: him in all his glory. Uh check out his uh.
Speaker 2: His bank famous, Somebody's.
Speaker 1: Slightly Famous, Somebody set in Stone, available on all platforms.
Speaker 1: It's been a pleasure talking to you, Jonathan. Wish you
Speaker 1: the best and we thank you for your time.
Speaker 4: Great to talk to you, Scott, have a good one.
Speaker 1: Everybody, don't forget. Follow us on Instagram at I Am
Speaker 1: all In podcast and email us at Gilmore at iHeart
Speaker 1: radio dot com.